Meridian Sun Lodge was among the first of the Lodges to be organized in what is now Summit County. At that time the area was Medina County. The Lodge was preceded by Middlebury Lodge No. 34, which was organized in February of 1816 and operated until 1828, and Hudson Lodge No. 68, organized in 1823, existing until 1828.
A charter to operate under dispensation was granted to Meridian Sun Lodge on September 5th 1823. The Charter members were, WM Isaac T. Welton, SW Isaac W. Morgan, JW Abraham Freese, John Smith PM, Adonoram Swift, Treasurer Salmon Oviatt, Jonathan Sheldon, David Green and David Jones. Many of these names are still familiar in the Richfield area.
In the 1820 Richfield Census there were 58 family’s listed and of the original 10 members that met at the first meeting I can find only 3 that lived in Richfield: Isaac Welton, Salmon Oviatt and Nathanial Oviatt. By the 1830 census Richfield had grown to 117 families.
MWB Charles R. Sherman: Grand Master in 1824
At the meeting of 1 May 1824, a committee was appointed to make arrangements for the Installation of the Lodge on 24 June, 1824, the following is transcribed from the minutes.
Solomon Curtis: Master of Meridian Sun in 1827
OFFICERS IN 1827
MWB John Milton Goodenow: Grand Master in 1827
NATHANIEL OVIATT: Master of Meridian Sun in 1828
He was born 12 June 1790 in Goshen Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1811 Nathaniel Oviatt, of Goshen, Conn., came to this town with his family, performing the journey with oxen and cart the whole distance.
WYLLYS WELTON, WM 1829, 1830 & 1831
Willis (spelling in Census) in the 1860 Summit County, OH Census, was 59 years old born (b. 1801) in Connecticut, he was married with 4 sons, he was listed as a Farmer, living in Hudson and was worth $4,400.